Mark Ryan, no stranger to the pages of Impact, will be taking to the high tides when he re-teams with Transformers director Michael Bay for the new television series Black Sails. The two worked together on the first three Transformers movies, where Ryan voiced the character of Bumblebee. This new project, for America's Starz cable channel (already responsible for the likes of 'Spartacus'), is a prequel to Treasure Island, set twenty years before the classic story by Robert Louis Stevenson.
Mark will be playing the buccaneer 'Gates', Captain Flint's right-hand man. Flint is played by Toby Stephens, with Like Arnold assuming the role of the younger John Silver who fatefully joins Flint's crew and sees the ship head to New Providence Island – a 'debauched paradise teeming with pirates, prostitutes and thieves...'
As we've noted previously, Mark's had a fascinating career, both in front of and behind the camera: from the likes of originating the role of Magaldi in the early staging of Evita, the role of Nasir in Robin of Sherwood, fight-choreographer on the likes of King Arthur and the Transformers films.
Bay will be executive-producing the show which is being written by Jon Steinberg (Jericho) and Robert Levine (Touch) with the pilot being directed by Neil Marshall (The Descent, Game of Thrones). It was recently undergoing pre-production in Cape Town, South Africa and is expected on screen in 2014 with a first season running to eight episodes.